Read the following passage and Agree or Disagree with its message. How can individualism lead to Happiness in the Western world or at Don Bosco? Discuss.

Individualism RejectedNon-Western culture rejects individualism. It holds that all achievement is ultimately a gift from God or/and a product of the group—not a result of the individual and his or her reason, volition and initiative.

In other words, nonwestern culture may hold that God controls, and is responsible for, everything—including the individual and whatever he or she may achieve.

Western culture holds that the attainment of one's own worldly happiness should be the focus of each person's life.

Put differently, Western culture holds that worldly happiness is, in the words of Aristotle, “the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing... the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”[1]

Happiness is a fundamental and lasting sense of joy and serenity that results from achieving personally meaningful and rational values. Happiness is an indication that one is living successfully, a life proper to a human being, while suffering (as a way of life) is a sign that one is not.[2]

Liars, cheaters, thieves, murderers and the like must be intensely concerned with getting caught, spending time in jail and/or, perhaps more seriously, forever labeled untrustworthy and cast out as pariahs—losing at least some of the benefits of living in society as a result. And for many such individuals, a simple knock at the door, bump in the night or countless other normally non-threatening occurrences become terror since they may represent the police or, perhaps worse, their victims seeking revenge.

Source www.westerncultureglobal.org/knowledge-happiness.html

Photo of Mobster ArrestedPhoto of Rap Star ArrestedPhoto of an Inventor

What impressions do these photos give about Individualism and culture? Discuss